The majority of regional governments, including two of the PSOE, have criticised the cancellation of €15,000 million worth of debt. Castilla y León and Murcia have announced that they will take the matter to court.
The confirmation that Pedro Sánchez has agreed to forgive €15 billion of debt to Catalonia, plus another €1.3 billion in interest, has triggered a cascade of reactions in the territories that consider it a comparative grievance, including two of the three communities in which the PSOE governs. The measure was part of the pack of demands that ERC had put forward in exchange for its votes in favour of the candidate for re-election, a support that has been definitively sealed this Thursday.
According to the newspaper El Mundo, the president of Asturias, the socialist Adrián Barbón, who is not exactly known for his public criticism of the decisions taken by his party, explained that “I have been very clear on the debt before any agreement was reached: I ask for equal treatment. I asked for it then, I ask for it now and I will ask for it in the future when it is my turn to raise it with the Spanish Government”.
Castilla-La Mancha, in turn, has been maintaining for some time that the negotiation of the new financing model cannot be bilateral with Catalonia alone. It will be at a public event to be held this Friday in Ciudad Real when Emiliano García-Page, also of the PSOE, will speak “clearly” on this issue.
The Government of Navarre, headed by the Socialist María Chivite, has chosen not to make a statement – at least for now – on the matter.
In contrast, the majority of autonomous communities under the PP have come out in force to censure a concession to Catalan independence that is added to that of the amnesty for those involved in the illegal referendum of October 1st 2017.
“After the moral humiliation, Sánchez intends to cause economic aggravation and Andalusia says no,” said the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno.
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid, lamented that “Democracy is for sale… “Sánchez is a danger to Spain. The PSOE’s silence turns socialists in all communities into pro-independence supporters”.
“If it occurs to anyone to forgive a single cent to anyone, they have to start with the Comunitat Valenciana, in any case… And from there, we talk”, stressed the president of this autonomous region, Carlos Mazón, and the rest of the presidents of the 17 autonomous communities have expressed themselves along the same lines.
